This non-provisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119(a) on Patent Application No. 2001-133455 filed in Japan on Apr. 27, 2001, and No. 2002-059281 filed in Japan on Mar. 5, 2002, which are herein incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a vehicular pedal displacement prevention structure that is capable of preventing rearward displacement of the vehicular pedals in a head-on collision of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, vehicles, such as a motor vehicle, are equipped with a suspended brake pedal (e.g. vehicular pedal). This vehicular pedal is suspended on a dash panel partitioning the vehicle into an engine compartment or room in front of the vehicle and a vehicle compartment, by a pedal bracket. Further, the vehicular pedal is constructed such that it extends to the rear of the vehicle.
Further, the dash panel is a vehicle body component disposed adjacent to an engine in the engine room. Therefore, during a frontal collision of the vehicle, the engine can move toward the rear of the vehicle and press the dash panel. This causes the dash panel to deform and stick out toward the rear of the vehicle. Consequently, the brake pedal can move toward the rear of the vehicle.
Conventionally, to prevent such movement of the vehicular pedal, a displacement prevention structure for preventing the rearward displacement of the brake pedal has been proposed. See Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 11-59351.
The structure disclosed in the Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 11-59351 has a step portion at a predetermined position on the vehicular pedal, which is located below the fulcrum suspending the vehicular pedal. An arm member having the top thereof extending to a point corresponding to and remote from the step portion of the vehicular pedal is fixed to a deck cross member disposed rearward and above the vehicular pedal. In this pedal structure, the stepping of the brake pedal does not interfere with the arm member.
In the brake pedal structure described in the Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 11-59351, if the brake pedal is deformed toward the rear of the vehicle after the frontal collision of the vehicle, the step portion is brought into contact with the top portion of the arm member. The load applied on this occasion bends the arm member downwardly, rotatably displacing the brake pedal toward the front of the vehicle (in a direction in which a pedal surface at the end of the pedal moves toward the front of the vehicle). The rotatable displacement restricts the rearward displacement of the brake pedal toward the rear of the vehicle.
In the brake pedal structure described in above Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication, however, the brake pedal is constructed such that the step portion of the pedal is pushed down by the arm member. For this reason, the brake pedal structure is likely to be complicated in order to maintain assembling accuracy.
More specifically, the brake pedal structure disclosed in the above publication has the following problems. There is the possibility that positions of the step portion of the brake pedal vary according to vehicles because it is necessary to assemble the brake pedal to a vehicle body while adjusting the position of the step surface of the brake pedal and the pedal stroke. Further, to displace the brake pedal toward the front of the vehicle by bending of the arm member, it is necessary to meet the following requirements: (1) the end of the arm member is usually disposed at such a point apart from the step portion as not to affect the movement of the brake pedal; (2) In a head-on collision of vehicles, the end of the arm member must is brought into contact with such a point as to cause rotatable displacement of the step portion of the brake pedal toward the rear of the vehicle. Therefore, the brake pedal structure disclosed in the above publication is likely to be complicated and more costly since it is necessary to meet the additional requirements for maintaining the high assembling accuracy in order to ensure the stable and exact movement.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a vehicular pedal displacement prevention structure, which is capable of preventing the reward displacement of the vehicular pedal in a head-on collision of a vehicle with high accuracy by a simple structure that does not require high assembling accuracy.
To attain the above object, a vehicular pedal displacement prevention structure includes: a first vehicle component that is displaced toward the rear of the vehicle when external force is applied to the front portion of the vehicle has a pedal bracket extending toward the rear of the vehicle; a pedal arm is rotatably mounted on this pedal bracket; a rotatable lever that is capable of coming into contact with the pedal bracket is mounted to the pedal bracket; and a guide member opposed to the rotatable lever is provided in a second vehicle component disposed at the rear of the vehicle farther from the first vehicle component.
With this arrangement, when an external force equal to or greater than a predetermined value is applied to the front of the vehicle to cause the pedal bracket, as well as the first vehicle component, to move toward the rear of the vehicle, the rotatable lever is brought into contact with the guide member to generate an impact, which causes the rotatable lever to rotate to be brought into contact with the pedal arm. This causes the pedal arm to be relatively displaced toward the front of the vehicle to restrict the rearward movement of thereof.